The prophetic interpretation expounded in this address was penned first by the writer in our issue for April 1982 and resumed a decade later in the issue of November/December 1992. In the light of events over the past fourteen years and with regard to the unique appearance of a whale in the River Thames, the time has come for the interpretation to be continued. The chronological pattern will confirm the time on the Divine clock.
THE 25th March, 2006, marked the 49th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. During the subsequent 7 x 7 years, a period of intense chastisement has taken place for Israel-Britain. In treaty after treaty a web of deceit has been woven around many constitutional acts of betrayal. The huge decline in Britain’s manufacturing base and the economic difficulties that have befallen our nation, since the nation entered into the EU “belly of hell” in 1973, are traceable to the infamous Treaty of Rome of 1957. Significantly, since 25th March events have moved swiftly; The Times, London, for 11th April, 2006, carried the headline: “Europe and its leaders in turmoil.” Electoral confusion in Italy and political cowardice in France, with Germany also in difficulty, means that paralysis now grips the three big countries of the original EEC Six.
Those who have believed that the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union is only about the successful scheming of men in politics and economics and that it is inevitable that this great nation be merged with some kind of utopian Euro-state, should now begin to feel uneasy, to say the least. A factor veiled from the materialistic mind is, through the pressure of another and greater dimension, beginning to shatter their illusions.
In order to discover this factor, it is necessary for students of our biblical heritage to appreciate the true allegorical interpretation of the account of Jonah the prophet (who was vouched for by Jesus Christ). We begin the interpretation subsequent to World War II. At this time, Britannia, having lost an empire, failed to seek the guidance of the Lord God as to her role in the world as a leading member of God’s family of covenant nations.
Undoubtedly there was a unique role for her to fulfil and the Lord spoke to Britannia to “cry out concerning the wickedness of great peoples in the earth.” Tragically, however, she ran away from the unique responsibility and, like Jonah of old, went down to the trading places of the merchants and the bankers and took to sea with them, hoping to escape from the covenant bonds that in her heart of hearts she knew existed between her and the LORD. This is the inner meaning of the Jonah episode.
For a short while in the late 1950s, as she lay on the sunny deck of her escape ship, Britannia doubtless thought she had “never had it so good” (to quote the words at that time of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan). But as with Jonah’s experience, an economic storm began to develop which increased until it reached the proportions of a tempest, so severe that the “merchants” were fearful that all would be lost. These men of the world decided that the only course open to them was to draw lots to discover who was to blame for all the trouble that had befallen them.
Whether by chance or design, the lot fell upon Britannia. Then and there she began to pour forth the sorry tale of her lack of faith in herself as a vital part of the LORD’S servant nation and people in the earth, whom the God of Israel had called upon to uphold His Statutes and Commandments and to lead the nations in peace. False shepherds (leaders) rose up in her midst who declared that nothing could ever be the same again and that the only way out of the dilemma was for Britannia to be separated from her ship of state and cast forth, as was Jonah, into the broiling sea of the world’s humanity and so lose all sense of her destiny among the nations. Then, said they, the tempest would cease.
Eventually, after further gallant attempts by a leader in France (de Gaulle) to prevent the terrible deed, Britannia was consigned to the tumult of the waters and directly into the mouth of a great community fish, which the LORD allowed to swallow Britannia whole. Since realizing she is still alive, Britannia has come to experience considerable discomfiture in this “belly of hell.” She is already, by reason of her affliction, crying out in her soul for deliverance from the nightmare.
As a significant turning-point, the cry perhaps began when the British Naval task force sailed out of Ports-mouth for the Falkland Islands on 5th April, 1982, to the refrain of “Rule, Britannia!” Since then the convulsions of the community fish have continued, with British-Bruges bile becoming bitter to the great Euro-mouth. It was however on 16th September, 1992, that Britannia’s regurgitation from the “belly of hell” began in earnest. Suddenly after several months of increasing unease, Britannia was thrown out of the European exchange-rate mechanism (ERM) by a seemingly irresistible force. Since then the light and air of freedom, in a measure, has wafted over the nation. It was exactly eight times seven years (perfected chastisement) from the French financial crisis of 16th-26th September, 1936 to 16th September, 1992 and Britain’s exit from the ERM.
When Europe fell into the abyss of conflict on 1st September, 1939, it was 1081 days – the number of abussos or abyss in Greek – from 16th September, 1936, when the countdown to conflict for the (European) nations began. How significant therefore that on Sunday evening, 16th September, 2001, just five days after the 9/11 terror attack on the U.S.A., Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, should stand outside 10 Downing Street to announce that a state of war existed with terrorism. That evening was 65 years exactly – the number of Israel’s breaking – from 16th September, 1936 and the beginning of the countdown to the 1939 conflict. The Times, London, for 17th September, 2001, carried Tony Blair’s words as a banner headline, that “we are at war with terrorism.” It was a date that had been anticipated and defined by students of the chronological patterns for some seventy years! Also, as Tony Blair intimated most recently, the world and the rules of conflict changed on 11th September, 2001 – have we thus passed a point of no return?
Let us all take supreme cognizance of the warning conveyed by these events taking place on 16th September. The First Lesson for Evening Prayer in Cranmer’s (1662) Book of Common Prayer on 16th September is Daniel 5:1-16, which contains the record of the dramatic scene in ancient Babylon at Belshazzar’s feast when the finger of God wrote upon the wall of the Hall of Judgment in the king’s palace, predicting his imminent downfall. We hardly need to wonder what the nature of events will be that will cause the EU “fish” to vomit Britannia out of its midst – they will be violent events that will have a powerful, if not fatal, effect upon the EU and its Euro currency.
The birth of Europe’s single currency on the last day of 1998 was marked at a great ceremonial launch when the champagne flowed as never before. The corks of the jeroboams were difficult to get out for the lordly over-mighty ministers of “Euroland.” In due course, however, the champagne flowed from the large bottles to remind those with ears to hear and eyes to see, of Jeroboam, the over-mighty evil man who lifted up his hand against Solomon, king of Israel, causing the kingdom of God upon earth to be split into two houses. On that last day of 1998 the Italian finance minister announced that Europe was “on the threshold of Utopia.”
The next stage came on 28th October, 2002, when the European constitution was announced by its author, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, followed two years later on 29th October, 2004, with the signing of the constitution by all 25 heads of government at the Capitol in Rome, the same venue where the Treaty of Rome was signed on 25 March, 1957, chosen of course for its symbolic significance in the building of a new Euro-state. Unfortunately for the builders of Utopia in Europe, in 2005 the electorates of France and The Netherlands rejected the EU constitution, which should mean that it is dead in the water. Yet, in early March 2006 Giscard pronounced: “Let’s be clear about this, the rejection of the constitution was a mistake that will have to be corrected.” Hell writhes indeed.
The First Lesson for Morning Prayer in the (1662) Book of Common Prayer on 28th October is Isaiah 28: 9-16, which contains the making of the “covenant with death” and the “agreement with hell.” This unconstitutional action identified by Isaiah was directly applicable to the vote in the House of Commons on 28th October, 1971, for Britain-Israel to go into the (then) Common Market “belly of hell” under the Treaty of Rome.
The Sign of the ‘Great Fish’
To an evil and adulterous Israel nation, our Lord declared one sign alone would be given and that it would be a resurrection from the “belly of hell” into which Jonah-Israel had fallen (Matthew 12:39). Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection, is the first-fruits of this sign – but let us now awaken to something quite remarkable. On 20th-21st January, 2006, London and Parliament at Westminster received the signal that the covenant nation will resurrect as well!
A young 20-foot long female north bottle nosed whale, having lost its way from the North Atlantic, entered the River Thames seeking western waters. Crowds flocked as it swam up river for 37 miles to see it pass Westminster about 11.00 am on 20th January. In total it reached some 40 miles up river before it returned down river reaching Gravesend at 7.00 pm on the next day where it died, thus bringing to an end the 36-hour melodrama. Perhaps the name Gravesend will prove appropriate for the EU (false) vision of Utopia.
This event happened on the eve of the 34th anniversary of Britain signing the Treaty of Accession to the Treaty of Rome on 22nd January 1972, when Prime Minister Edward Heath had black printer’s ink thrown over him one hour before he signed the infamous document. That incident recalled the almost prophetic words of Shakespeare concerning national betrayal: “With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds; That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself”
(Richard II, John of Gaunt, Act 2, Scene 1).
The period of 34 years since Britain-Israel bowed to the Treaty of Rome is expressed as 2 x 40 x 153 solar days, having the significance of a double period of trial (40) for the Elect (153). In respect of the time-line of judgment that Jonah was called to pronounce upon the wicked city of Nineveh, 40 days was the factor. The 37 miles that the whale swam to Westminster are significant of The Word, being the twelfth prime number or the number of government. This was the first time that a whale had been seen in the Thames since records began in 1913 (a period of 3 x 31 years to 2006, or a perfected period of the number of El, or God). People strove to save the creature, but it was all in vain.
There is perhaps ample evidence here to interpret the sign of the ‘great fish’ passing Parliament at Westminster as a signal that all is not well with the EU-Babylon. Indeed that it is heading for some sort of crisis over the EU constitution which the political elite are seeking to revive. There is a clause at the end of the document that says if four-fifths of the member nations agree that it can go ahead – and there are nearly that now – then they can decide what to do independently of the others, who then leave the Union. Is this how Britain-Israel is to be thrust out from its nightmare in the “belly of hell”?
When the Almighty speaks unto the EU “fish” the words, “Come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:4), it is a command. The speed and violence of the regurgitation is bound to be remarkable. The community, or Babylonian sea creature, will eventually vomit Britannia back on to the shore of her responsibility, where we shall breathe freely once more, albeit amid a time of unprecedented trouble as the “great (financial) city Babylon” in Europe falls to final judgment. The terror attack of 11th September, 2001, when the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York literally fell to terrorist action, within a single hour, undoubtedly constituted a warning of what is to come, and which is so graphically depicted in Revelation 18 – to the throwing down with violence, “in one day” and three times, “in one hour.”
Now, the sign of the ‘Great Fish’ has been given – we should be alert in expectation of the resurrection of Jonah-Britain from the “belly of hell.”
